hopkins



Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

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G. L. HOPKINS. CURTAIN FIXTURE. APPLICATION FILED JUNE 12, 1905.

967,920. Patented Aug'.23,1910.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES L. HOPKINS, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO THE CURTAIN SUPPLY COMPANY, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

CURTAIN-FIXTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Aug. 23, 1910.

Application filed .Tune 12, 1905. Serial No. 264,886.

T 0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES L. HOPKINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Curtain-Fixtures, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in that class of devices which are adapted to be carried by a spring-actuated curtain or shade, at or near its lower margin, to hold the curtain or shade against the tendency of its spring roller to wind it up.

More particularly, this invention relates to that class of curtain holding devices wherein a curtain stick carries at its ends tips or heads adapted tomove along grooves in the window frame as the curtain is raised or lowered, said tips or heads being forced into frictional engagement with the bottoms of the grooves by springs, located preferably within the curtain stick.

The object of the present invention is the production of a device of this class which will effectively hold the curtain at any elevation at which it may be left and which will not readily be thrown out of the grooves if the device be manipulated by grasping the stick at or near one end thereof and moving it up or down.

In a well known form of device elongated heads are employed, these heads being provided with frictional holding means in combination with antifriction rollers 0r wheels, so disposed with relation to each other that the holding means are normally active, while the anti-friction rollers are inactive. When the stick is canted into an abnormal position the holding means are withdrawn from active holding engagement and the anti-friction rollers are moved into engagement with the window frame and the device is permitted to self-right. In another type of device the frictional holding means are omitted and the wheels themselves are, by suitable instrumentalities, made to serve both as holding means and as anti-friction means. The device herein shown is of the latter type.

If a curtain be provided with a stick having outwardly spring-pressed heads, and these heads have mounted in their ends freely rotating rollers adapted to roll along the bottoms of the grooves, it is evident that the curtain may be raised or lowered without much danger of the device becoming canted. In other words, such a device will act as a self-alining curtain stick. But if the wheels be so arranged that they are not permitted to rotate, but are caused to slide along the grooves, the device w1ll hold the curtain against its upward tendency but will be liable to be thrown out of the grooves if moved by one end of the stick.

In the present invention I have provided means so formed and disposed as to constitute a fixture having the self-alining properties of a device having freely rotating wheels, combined with the holding properties of one having braked or locked wheels. It has been found that if but one of the wheels of each tip is locked, the other being free to rotate, the device will have suificient holding power to maintain the shade at any desired point, unless an excessive spring tension is employed in the roller upon which the curtain winds. In the device herein shown one of the wheels of a tip is always free to rotate; the other wheel being locked.

The invention involves such a combination and disposition of parts that the rotating wheel will always be the one that should rotate to permit the device to maintain its alinement, or to enable the device to right itself after having been forced into a canted position.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a view of a window frame with a curtain mounted therein provided with my improved curtain fixture, the latter being in its normal horizontal position; Fig. 2 is a similar View of a curtain and its fixture, but showing the curtain as being raised by placing the hand under the right-hand end of the fixture and moving the latter upwardly. The angle to which the fixture will be raised is exaggerated in this figure so as to show the action in causing one wheel on each tip to leave the bottom of the groove. In practice the fixture is not canted far enough to make the angle perceptible before the lower wheel on the left-hand side is sufficiently withdrawn from engagement to permit that end of the device to be raised by the upward pull of the spring shade roller; Figs. 3 and 4 show one form of tip which I use; Figs. 4 and 4 show details of the wheels used in this tip; and Figs. 5 and 6 show another form of tip.

In these drawings, 1 is a window frame having the side posts 2, 2 and the grooves 3, 3. The curtain 4 with its spring-actuated roller 5 is mounted in the window frame. The roller 5 is of the continuously acting type, tending at all times to wind up the curtain. At the lower edge of the curtain is the curtain stick 6 having its heads 7, 7 running in the grooves 3, 3. The heads are provided with the wheels 8, 8, 8, 8, these wheels being adapted to contact with the bottoms of the grooves. The heads are forced toward the bottoms of the grooves 3, 3, by springs, 9, 9, located within the stick.

By reason of the construction and arrangement of the wheels and cooperating parts as hereinafter described the upper wheels rotate freely when the device is moving upwardly but are retarded and prevented from freely rotating when the device is moving downwardly. The lower wheels rotate freely when the device is moving downwardly but are retarded when the device is moving upwardly. In other words, in whichever direction the device is moving, the forward wheel of each tip rotates, while the rear wheel drags.

Now if the curtain be raised or lowered by grasping the curtain stick atapoint about midway between its ends the fixture will remain level, the two forward wheels rotating and the two rear wheels dragging. If, how ever, the curtain is raised or lowered by grasping the stick at or near one end and moving it up or down there is a tendency for the stick to become canted and one of the wheels of each tip to be tilted away from the bottom of the groove. The tip nearest the hand of the operator will be simply forced along the groove in the direction in which the force is applied to move the curtain, but the tip at the opposite or free end of the fixture must be capable of movingfreely along the groove in the direction in which the other tip is being moved so that the device may remain level. Now it will be seen that it will always be the rearward or dragging wheel of the tip at the free end of the device that will be tilted out of engagement, and that the tip will ride on the forward or rotating wheel. By reason of this action the device moves upwardly or downwardly practically in a horizontal position even if moved by a force applied at its extreme end. If the device be forced into an angular position and left, the upward pull of the spring roller will tend to raise the lower end of the fixture while the other end of the fixture tends to drop. The tendency of the fixture under these combined influences is to right itself. Now, one wheel only of each tip is'in engagement with the bottom of its groove, and that wheel is free to rotate in the direction in which it should rotate to enable the device to self-right, so the fixture instantly assumes a horizontal position.

In Figs. 3 and 4, is shown a form and construction of tip adapted to have the action described above, being fitted with wheels each of which rotates freely in one direction but is retarded or braked when turned in the opposite direction. In this tip the wheels 8 are formed' with the depressions or pockets 10 each of which contains a small steel ball 11. These pockets are so formed as to 'be deeper at one end than at the other end and are so arranged that rotation of a wheel in one direction causes each of the balls in the pockets of that wheel to move toward the deeper part of its pocket, permitting the wheel to rotate freely, but rotation of the wheel in the opposite direction causes each of the balls to move toward the shallower part of its pocket and to become wedged between the bottom of the pocket and the side of the tip, retarding or preventing rotation of the wheel.

In Figsn5 and 6 is shown a form of tip in which the balls 11 are wedged between the inside of the wheel 8 and the specially formed spindle 12 when the wheel 8 is rotated in one direction, but is rolled back and out of engagement with the wheel when the latter is rotated in the opposite direction. In the figures showing these forms of tip the parts are shown in their normal positions, or the positions they will assume when the fixture and curtain are in the window frame and under tension from the spring shade roller. The lower wheel of each tip is locked and the upper wheel is free to rotate.

I claim:

1. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a stick, a head at the end of the stick, a wheel mounted in the head, said head and the side of said wheel having relatively oblique opposed surfaces, and means within the head movable relatively to the wheel and the head and adapted to become wedged between said surfaces to retard rotation of the wheel.

2. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a stick, a head carried thereby, a wheel mounted in the head and provided in its side with a pocket having an inclined wall, and a spherical member within said pocket adapted to be wedged between the inclined wall of said pocket and a side of the head, for the purpose set forth.

3. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a stick, a head at the end of the stick, a wheel mounted in the head and having an inclined side wall, and a rolling member between said inclined side wall of the wheel and the adjacent side wall of the head.

4. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a stick, a head at the end of the stick, a wheel mounted in the head and having a pocket formed with an inclined side wall and a transverse end wall, and a ball in said pocket in rolling engagement with said in clined side wall and a side wall of the head whereby to retard the rotation of said wheel in one direction by crowding the same sidewise or in a direction parallel with its axis of rotation, but permitting free rotation of the wheel in the opposite direction.

5. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a curtain stick having a head at each end, a wheel at the upper and lower ends of said head, each wheel having a side surface obliquely disposed in relation to said head, and a movable wedging member between the oblique surface of each wheel and its corresponding head, thereby allowing each wheel to be rotated in only one direction.

6. In a curtain fixture, the combination of a curtain stick having a head at each end, a wheel at the upper and lower ends of said head, each wheel having a side surface obliquely disposed in relation to said head, 20

tain stick is moved in a downward direction 25 and of the lower wheels when the curtain stick is moved in an upward direction.

CHARLES L. HOPKINS.

l/Vitnesses:

SAMUEL N. POND, L. F. MOCREA. 

